Quality of Life Affirmed by Census Data : Trends: In categories like homeownership and family unity, the county comfortably exceeds statewide averages.

Ventura County, a mix of small cities and new commuter neighborhoods, has a higher rate of homeownership and fewer broken families than California as a whole, the 1990 census shows.

Despite steep housing prices, nearly 66% of the county’s 217,000 occupied dwellings are owned by the people who live in them, the same percentage as in 1980 and a rate much higher than the statewide average of 57.6%.

The county’s high rate of homeownership spans all racial and ethnic groups.

About 70% of white households in Ventura County own the homes in which they live, compared to 61% statewide. The county-state comparison is 73% to 55% for Asians, 47% to 40% for Latinos and 44% to 36% for blacks.

The numbers are significant because communities with large numbers of owner-occupied houses are more stable and tend to have less crime, analysts say. Ventura County has the lowest crime rate of any metropolitan county west of Bismarck, N.D.

In the face of a nationwide shift away from traditional families, Ventura County also has a comparatively high rate of households with two parents and children--the so-called nuclear family. Nearly a third of all county households fit that description, compared to 27% statewide. And about 74% of children in the county live with both parents, compared to 67% statewide.

Family households of all types--including married couples without children at home and single-parent families--account for more than three-fourths of the households in this county, compared to 69% for the state. About 84% of county residents live with other family members.

“People who value the quality of family life have moved to Ventura County,” said Una Kuan, a U.S. Census Bureau analyst who has lived in Thousand Oaks for a decade. “These are family communities. There is less smog and education is good.”

Despite long commutes into Los Angeles for both herself and her husband, Kuan said she has stayed in Ventura County because “after a long, hard day you want a peaceful community to come home to.”

Even in this county, however, families represent a decreasing share of the population.

Families made up 80% of households in 1980 but 75.8% last year. The composition of families also is changing, with nuclear families dropping from 37% of households to 33% in 10 years. Conversely, the number of single men raising children jumped 74%, from 2,957 households to 5,159. And households run by single mothers increased from 11,637 to 13,861, or 19%.

Countywide, only about 22,000 women live alone as do 16,000 men, occupying 17% of all dwellings. An additional 14,500 residences are shared by people who are not related.

The most recent batch of census data also shows that Ventura County differs from the statewide norm in other ways.

For example, the cost of renting or buying a house was about 24% higher in Ventura County compared to statewide in 1990. The median price in Ventura County was $243,500 last year and the median rent was $695, both about 2 1/2 times as much as in 1980.

Also, the rate of overcrowded dwellings--those with more than one resident per room--is well below the state average. Overcrowding is about half of the statewide norm in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Ventura and Camarillo, four of the county’s five largest cities.

Only in Oxnard, Santa Paula and Fillmore--havens for immigrant farm workers--is crowding prevalent. More than one-fifth of the dwellings in all three cities are overcrowded, a rate nearly double the state average.

Yet, Ventura County mirrors California’s trends in other ways.

Both the county and the state are aging slower than the rest of the nation, primarily because they have been ports of entry for young Asian and Latino immigrants who have arrived since 1980.

The median age in Ventura County is 31.7 years, compared to 31.5 for the state and 33 years for the nation.

The county also had the state’s first male majority since 1950. Out of 669,000 residents, there were 5,970 more males than females in 1990. A decade earlier, there were 2,434 more females than males.

Within the Ventura County profile sketched from new census data are additional reminders of the differences between Ventura County’s richest and poorest communities.

Oxnard, Santa Paula and Fillmore--all more than 50% Latino after tens of thousands of Mexican laborers moved there in the 1980s--have among the lowest housing prices and rents. The percentages of owner-occupied dwellings are comparatively low, and more people live in each dwelling in those cities than in most others.

Port Hueneme shares some of the same characteristics, but its dwellings are not nearly as crowded nor do married couples and children make up as large a share of its population. Port Hueneme is the only city in the county with more renters than homeowners. These numbers suggest the influence of the U.S. Navy Seabee station there.

By contrast, the affluent east county, where about half of all workers commute to Los Angeles, has high housing prices and rents and little overcrowding.

But the new data also reveals subtle differences among east county communities.

For example, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark have the highest housing prices in the county, but the census shows that residents of Thousand Oaks are 5 1/2 years older on average. That city also has fewer married couples and children.

Moorpark, which has grown from 7,800 residents to 25,000 since its incorporation in 1983, has the highest percentage of family households in the county, 84.5%. Nearly three-fourths of its households are headed by married couples and just over a third of its population are children--both highs for the county.

As in Moorpark, a high percentage of residents in fast-growing Simi Valley own their own homes and live as families. Simi Valley has more children than the county norm and relatively few senior citizens.

Ventura is distinctive among the 10 cities of Ventura County. Its population is more typical of the state’s.

Ventura has a greater share of single-person households than any other city in the county, 25%. It has a lower proportion of family households and married couples and the county’s lowest ratio of children to adults. Just 23.5% of its population is under age 18, which is well below the state average. It also has the county’s second highest rate of residents who are at least 65 years old.

Camarillo’s population is the county’s oldest, averaging 36.1 years. Nearly 17% of the city’s residents are at least 65, compared to a county norm of 9.4%.

Camarillo and Moorpark have the lowest proportion of family households headed by unmarried men and women, about 10%. By contrast, Oxnard and Santa Paula have the highest rates, about 18%. The number includes not only single-parent families but also relatives who live together but are not parents and children.

POPULATION PROFILE

MEDIAN % UNDER % 65 YEARS TOTAL CITY POPULATION AGE 18 YEARS AND OLDER HOUSEHOLDS Camarillo 52,303 36.1 24.1% 16.7% 18,109 Fillmore 11,992 28.5 33.0% 11.5% 3,400 Moorpark 25,494 29.2 33.5% 3.8% 7,621 Ojai* 7,613 n/a n/a n/a n/a Oxnard 142,216 28.3 30.7% 7.7% 39,302 Port Hueneme 20,319 28.8 27.5% 9.9% 6,732 Santa Paula 25,062 29.4 29.9% 12.3% 7,664 Simi Valley 100,217 31.0 28.2% 5.3% 31,998 Thousand Oaks 104,352 34.6 24.7% 9.0% 36,457 Ventura 92,575 33.7 23.5% 12.5% 35,408 Countywide 669,016 31.7 27.4% 9.4% 217,298 Statewide 29,760,021 31.5 26.0% 10.5% 10,381,206

% SINGLE % SINGLE % MARRIED FEMALE HEAD MALE HEAD % FAMILY COUPLE OF FAMILY OF FAMILY CITY HOUSEHOLDS HOUSEHOLDS HOUSEHOLDS HOUSEHOLDS Camarillo 76.3% 65.9% 7.3% 3.1% Fillmore 81.3% 65.6% 10.6% 5.1% Moorpark 84.5% 74.1% 6.7% 3.7% Ojai* n/a n/a n/a n/a Oxnard 78.4% 59.8% 12.9% 5.7% Port Hueneme 69.5% 53.3% 11.8% 4.5% Santa Paula 78.1% 60.5% 12.0% 5.9% Simi Valley 80.5% 67.0% 9.5% 4.1% Thousand Oaks 76.0% 64.3% 8.2% 3.6% Ventura 66.8% 52.2% 10.7% 3.8% Countywide 75.8% 61.8% 9.8% 4.2% Statewide 68.8% 52.7% 11.5% 4.6%

* Note: No data available for Ojai because it has less than 10,000 residents.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

HOUSING PROFILE

NUMBER OF MEDIAN PEOPLE OCCUPIED % OWNER % RENTER MEDIAN MONTHLY PER CITY DWELLINGS OCCUPIED OCCUPIED VALUE RENT DWELLING Camarillo 18,109 72.2% 27.8% $249,500 $765 2.84 Fillmore 3,400 62.1% 37.9% $189,700 $561 3.45 Moorpark 7,621 80.1% 19.9% $276,800 $866 3.34 Ojai* n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Oxnard 39,302 53.7% 46.3% $204,600 $634 3.56 Port Hueneme 6,732 47.1% 52.9% $187,200 $655 2.85 Santa Paula 7,664 58.6% 41.4% $203,600 $552 3.22 Simi Valley 31,998 76.4% 33.6% $233,000 $844 3.12 Thousand Oaks 36,457 73.7% 26.3% $297,000 $840 2.82 Ventura 35,408 56.3% 43.7% $242,300 $671 2.55 Countywide 217,298 65.5% 34.5% $245,300 $695 3.0 Statewide 10,381,206 57.6% 42.4% $195,500 $561 2.8

% CROWDED CITY DWELLINGS Camarillo 5.1% Fillmore 22.8% Moorpark 8.5% Ojai* n/a Oxnard 25.0% Port Hueneme 13.7% Santa Paula 20.9% Simi Valley 5.5% Thousand Oaks 3.7% Ventura 6.1% Countywide 10.5% Statewide 12.3%

* Note: No data available for Ojai because it has less than 10,000 residents.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau